ECO5003F GOVERNANCE AND GROWTH

Convener: Prof J Burns (HESQF level 9, 30 NQF credits)Course Entry Requirements: An undergraduate major in Economics and Honours degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline.Course Outline: This course will explore the interactions between economics, institutions and politics at both conceptual and applied levels. It will explore the tension between, on the one hand, ‘best practice’ economic policy and governance prescriptions and, on the other, the practical challenge of identifying feasible ‘next steps’ in concrete settings. The course will include lecture-style presentation and discussion of emerging concepts, approaches and tolls, plus discussion-based country and sectoral case studies.

ECO5073F PROBLEMS OF GLOBALISATION, INDUSTRIALISATION & DEVELOPMENT

Convener: Prof M Morris (HESQF level 9, 30 NQF credits)Course Entry Requirements: An undergraduate major in Economics and Honours degree in a relevant discipline.Course Outline: This course exposes students to ‘problem-driven’ approaches (compared to method-driven or theory-driven approaches). The course focuses on a selection of the significant global problems that especially confront the developing world analysing their global and local determinants and effects.

ECO5074S RESEARCH & POLICY TOOLS

Convener: Professor M. Morris (HEQSF level 9, 30 NQF credits)Course entry requirements: An undergraduate major in Economics and an Honours degree or equivalent in a relevant disciplineCourse outline: This course aims to provide students with an understanding of a broad range of economic tools that specialists apply to development problems particularly project and programme evaluation. These include cost benefit, cost-effectiveness and Multi-criteria decision analysis. The tools that commonly inform these, particularly social accounting matrices and input-output tables and linear programming are also introduced. Students will be able to supplement this course with the current master’s level Econometrics course as an elective.

ECO5076S DEVELOPMENT MICROECONOMICS

Convener: A/Prof J Burns (HESQF level 9, 30 NQF credits)Course Entry Requirements: Honours in Economics or equivalent or at the discretion of the Head of Department.Course Outline: This course is about the application of microeconomic analysis to issues of development in low and middle income countries. The main objective is to undertake a critical reading of recent research on the empirical microeconomics of development. Topics covered are: (1) the econometrics of impact evaluation; (2) land contracts and land reform; (3) intra-household resource allocation and gender bias; (4) the evaluation of human capital programs; (5) the structure of labour and credit markets in developing countries; and (6) the microeconomic impacts of international trade.

GPP5001F STRATEGIC POLICYMAKING FOR DEVELOPMENT: ANALYSIS & PRACTICES

Convener: Prof B Levy (HEQSF level 9, 25 NQF credits)Course entry requirements: Honours degree or equivalentCourse outline: This course aims to equip students with knowledge and tools to identify, design and build support for priority development policies.
The course will:

Provide a comparative overview of different approaches to development policy-making, across countries and over time;

Explore ways to identify a ‘good fit’ between policy design and a country’s economic, political and social context and institutions;

Introduce and apply tools that can help build momentum for policy change by engaging multiple government and non-governmental stakeholders in the policy formulation process;

Anchor the learning in case studies, with an emphasis on South African, and other African, examples; and

Provide a practical bridge between priority policy objectives in the student’s place of work and the knowledge and tools explored in the course.

Provide students with methodological tools to evaluate current knowledge and data and facilitate the making of sound judgements on policy and implementation.

GPP5002S POLICY IMPLEMENTATION & THE REGULATION OF MARKETS

Convener: Prof B Levy (HEQSF level 9, 25 NQF credits)Course entry requirements: Successful completion of GPP5001FCourse outline: This course aims to equip students with knowledge and tools to move from broad policy goals and strategies to the details of design and implementation that are key to development effectiveness.
The course will:

Survey the multiple management functions that need to be addressed within the public sector (including budget planning; management of public expenditure and administration; procurement; parastatal governance);

Diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of public bureaucracies as instruments of implementing public policy;

Examine the potential of a variety of tools to enhance the transparency, accountability and effectiveness of public bureaucracies

Anchor the learning in case studies, with an emphasis on South African, and other African, examples; and

Provide a practical bridge between priority policy implementation challenges in their places of work and the knowledge and tools explored in the course.

Review key economic concepts, with a focus on their relevance for policymaking, and the governance of markets;

Explore the role and challenges of market regulation (e.g. utility regulation, environmental regulation, competition policy), with a focus on how economic reasoning can help guide regulatory design;

Provide continuing instruction in methodological tools to evaluate current knowledge and data and facilitate the making of sound judgements on policy and implementation.

GPP5004W TOPICS IN DEVELOPMENT POLICY

Convener: Prof B Levy (HEQSF level 9, 30 NQF credits)Course entry requirements: GPP 5001F; GPP5003W. Generally, students will be encouraged to complete GPP5002S before beginning GPP5004W. However, with permission of the instructors, GPP 5002S and GPP5004W can be taken at the same time.Course outline: This course aims to equip students with cutting edge knowledge and tools in specialized areas of direct relevance to public sector leaders. At the beginning of the course, 3-4 subject areas will be introduced to all students by leading experts in each area, following which students will work in depth on one of these subject areas with the expert faculty.
Key features will include:

The subject areas are likely to vary from semester to semester. Areas where UCT has a strong platform of expertise, and which thus are likely to be well-represented in the offerings, include health care; trade, industrial policy and export promotion; climate change mitigation and adaptation; infrastructure and its regulation; labour markets and employment; information and transparency;

Each subject area will be taught by a leading expert from within UCT, or from outside the university (including internationally);

Each subject area will be customized to enhance its direct relevance to the challenges of policy formulation and implementation;

Students will be encouraged to focus their in-depth work around a topic of direct relevance to their current job, with ongoing mentorship by the expert faculty.

GSB5013S INTERNATIONAL FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Convener: N Biekpe (HEQSF level 9, 12 NQF credits)Course entry requirements: Admission to the degreeCourse outline: The module is organized under seven main units. The first unit is a review of basic concepts in finance that are useful for a grasp of development finance. Unit 2, looks at the nature of transaction costs in financial markets and its implications. Capital market theory is considered in Unit 3, certain features of capital markets in developing countries are also discussed. The subject of Unit 4 is credit market in developing countries. The role of external/foreign aid and economic development is presented in Unit 5. Assessment of country risk represents Unit 6 and Unit 7 deals with sustainability issues in finance.
On completion of this course unit, students will, among other things, be able to:

Identify, define, explain and apply key concepts in development finance;

Explain and evaluate approaches and policy issues relevant to financial and economic development processes;

Critically analyse real life cases in development applications in developing countries.

GSB5105F ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT FINANCE

Convener: N Biekpe (HEQSF level 9, 12 NQF credits)Course entry requirements: Admission to the degreeCourse outline: The module is organised under seven main units. The first unit is a review of basic concepts in finance that are useful for a grasp of development finance. Unit 2, looks at the nature of transaction costs in financial markets and its implications. Capital market theory is considered in Unit 3, certain features of capital markets in developing countries are also discussed. The subject of Unit 4 is credit market in developing countries. The role of external/foreign aid and economic development is presented in Unit 5. Assessment of country risk represents Unit 6 and Unit 7 deals with sustainability issues in finance. The main aim of the course is to provide insight into concepts, approaches and issues of policy among others in the context of development finance relevant to the financial and economic development processes.
On completion of this course unit, students will be able to, among other things:

Identify, define, explain and apply key concepts in development finance;

Explain and evaluate approaches and policy issues relevant to financial and economic development processes;

Critically analyse real life cases in development applications in developing countries.

GSB5106F RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT

Convener: S Giamporcaro (HEQSF level 9, 12 NQF credits)Course entry requirements: Admission to the degreeCourse outline: This course aims to explore some alternative and critical ways of thinking about economic growth and development in Africa by unpacking the multi-layered field of Sustainable Responsible Investment (SRI). SRI, as used in the course, is an umbrella term to describe any investment strategies and philosophies aiming to integrate, environmental, social and governance issues and opportunities (ESG) into investment decision making and to create a positive ESG impact (including impact investing). The primary aim of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive theoretical and practical view of SRI worldwide with a more focused lens on SRI in emerging economies. The secondary objective of this course is to encourage thoughtful, honest and serious debate about SRI. Students will debate through group exercises and dialogues whether and how SRI can be a powerful tool to gear investments towards a more sustainable and responsible impact in Africa.
On completion of this course unit, students will be able to:
1. Acquired a structured and critical knowledge of the multi-layered concept and field of SRI
2. Explored how investors in varied part of the world are currently promoting in innovative ways SRI strategies.
3. Applied that knowledge to their local context through individual assignments, group debates, and dialogue with investment practitioners and individual exercises.

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Studying Development

Poverty and Inequality Initiative,
SALDRU, School of Economics,
University of Cape Town.
Private Bag X3,
Rondebosch 7701, South Africa

Contact Details

Disclaimer:
While care has been taken to ensure that all development offerings at UCT are included, there may be relevant courses which are not listed. In addition while every effort has been made to ensure that the booklet is accurate and up to date, it is the responsibility of the user to confirm the information from other UCT sources e.g. the faculty handbooks.
The last update was in November 2016